The global world represents a threat to Ghana due to activities of violent extremists - NCCE boss

Chairperson of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), Kathleen Addy, has asserted that Ghana’s democracy is more threatened by external factors than issues that are internal.

With violent extremism on Ghana’s borders on the rise, Madam Addy believes those are the biggest threat to the nation’s democracy.

She said, although there is the belief that every election year is tensed with pessimist expectations, “what I see different about this year, and I think that we don’t even talk enough about that, this year, we are living in a different world, that the global environment represents a threat to us.”

Madam Addy explained that “if you look at the West Africa sub-region, you see so many countries, big democracies falling, falling to violent extremists, falling to coup makers, falling to international geopolitical shifts here and there, going with this person one day and with this other force the other day. You see so much instability within the states. And as Ghanaians, we are not immune.”

This, she has cautioned authorities to be wary of, indicating that ensuring a peaceful election is achievable since Ghana has what it takes to make that materialise.

According to her, “Ghana has great mechanisms to ensure we have a peaceful election.” The NCCE boss was speaking on Ghana’s upcoming elections and how to ensure the nation’s peace remains intact before, during, and after the polls when she made that comment.

She said that the year being an election year to elect leaders required every citizen to exercise their franchise, describing the ability for people to exercise their voting rights as a gift.

“This is the year that we get to exercise the mandate to go and elect leaders. This is an important exercise. It’s a civic duty, it’s a responsibility, it’s a gift actually, that those who set up the republic gifted us with a democracy that requires that every four years you get to have a say in who gets to lead us,” she said on Hot Issues on TV3 Sunday, September 15, 2024.

Source: onuaonline